July 07, 2005
Courage That Unites
As the blasts of fireworks exploded over the Baltimore Harbor on Monday night’s 4th of July Celebration there were plenty of “ooh’s and ahh’s” heard. There was also music over the loud speakers accompanying the flashes of light across the night sky. One song in particular stood out to my wife and me, “God Bless the U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood. For me it was the lines that rang out, “And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.”
As those lyrics echoed in the recesses of my cluttered brain, my mind wandered to my surroundings and all the people around me. I thought about all the people that were around watching the spectacle and the possibility of a real bomb going off in the crowd. Not one that lit up the sky, but one that lit up the ground and destroyed life. I thought about the policemen I had seen in the area and wondered how vigilant they had to be in preventing something like that from happening.
Yesterday New York was attacked on September 11, 2001 and America’s resolve was tested while our allies provided comfort. Today London was ravaged by bombs and America returns the comfort they provided us. Who will need the aide and comfort of their allies tomorrow?
President Bush had these words to share about our friends across the lake on November 19, 2003, “America has always found strong partners in London, leaders of good judgment and blunt counsel and backbone when times are tough…[During WWII] we saw an island threatened on every side, a leader who did not waver, and a country of the firmest character. And that has not changed. The British people are the sort of partners you want when serious work needs doing...America is fortunate to call this country our closet friend in the world.” And today, July 7th 2005, just 2 days after the celebration of our declaration of independence from the British, we stand united with them once again to defeat evil.
Despite the best efforts of terrorist to divide our country and our friends by fear, they fail to see that we are ultimately united by our courage. This is evident in Tony Blair’s words this morning, “Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world.”
Tony Blair stood firm as he added, “It is important that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world.”
The United States and the United Kingdom have found their resolve to lead the world with their courage to stand up and not back down. President Bush emphasized, “We will not yield to the terrorists. We will find them; we will bring them to justice.”
On the radio this morning I heard that, “America can choke on a gnat, and swallow a tiger hole.” It is our differences that cause us to divide and choke out freedom and it is our courage, our resolve that unite us to defeat our enemies. Let our countries, our citizens and even our world not choke on the gnat of fear, but swallow the tiger of terrorism hole with our courage.
